Consulting Books and Movies

List of favorite books on consulting :

Thinkertoys (Michalko)
Million Dollar Consulting (Weiss)
Leading Change (Kotter)
The Mckinsey Mind (Rasiel)
Shenson on Consulting (Shenson)
The Knowledge Society (Drucker)
The Trusted Advisor (Maister)
The Consultant's Calling (Bellman)
The Achievers (Bell)
How to Become a Successful Consultant in Your Own Field (Bermont)
How to build a successful consulting practice (Phillips)
The Emyth Revisited: Why Small Businesses Don't Work and What To Do About It (Gerber)
Managing the Professional Services Firm (Maister)

Million Dollar Consulting got the most mentions as the complete book consultants use both to start their practice as well as to serve as an ongoing reference book.


How about using some classic movies as the basis of discussion? Some movies have rich characters, plot and storylines that would make for fertile discussion among members of a management team. Here are a few:

Twelve Angry Men (1957) is a story of a jury deciding an apparent open and shut murder case. The character development and evolving story line reflects common interactions in management team negotiations.

The Caine Mutiny (1954) addresses weakness of command, ethical dilemmas, communication between ranks, and executive decisionmaking. And you though running a company was easy?

The Godfather (1972) is all about what is business and what is personal, transfer of control, and about the impact of traditions on operation of an enterprise.

12 O'Clock High (1949) is a look into leadership, betrayal, morale, discipline, and perseverance under duress. Strip away the war setting and you will find many elements of how teams behave under stressful settings and how they cope.

The Office - Not a movie but a weekly TV show with fertile representation of all too familiar personalities in many business settings. A smorgasbord of how not to manage.

Have managers watch these movies for discussion and comparison to their current individual and group behavior. Better yet, have the team watch them together on your next management retreat and discuss merits of the characters and team behavior.